
Class _L 13^0 11 

Book AA/38_ 

Copyright}]" 



COPYRIGHT deposit; 



L^ 



THE 



Control of Pupils 






ARLAND D." WEEKS 



State Normal School, Valley City, N. D. 




-J-JJ •JJJO-* 



SYRACUSE, N. Y. 



C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER 

1903 



Copyright, 1903, by C, W. Bardeen 



Tht LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Receiver' 

JUN 10 1903 I 

^ CopyfJgfU bntry ^ 

dLASS Oi. XXc. No. I 

■ ^ / b I n 




*' We are all born enemies of disorder." 

— Carlyle. 



«- * • 



• • • • 
» • • • • 



♦ • •# 



PREFACE 

The question of discipline is of great 
importance generally, but in schools particu- 
larly. Mothers and fathers fail in the dis- 
cipline of infant children; teachers in sec- 
ondary schools are classed as successful or 
unsuccessful according to discipline; uni- 
versity professors have been known to lose 
much in efficiency through inability to 
maintain order in their classes. Many 
teachers think they have no questions of 
discipline; in their case tact and experience 
have made the work of governing friction- 
less, but no school controls itself. A skill- 
ful driver guides a well-trained horse almost 
without effort, but he drives. So do teach- 
ers that teach. The questions of discipline 
involve physiology, psychology, sociology, 
and common sense. Experience teaches 
expensively. Suggestions teach inexpens- 
ively. This is a little, book of suggestions 
with reasons. 

(3) 



CONTENTS 

Chapter I 
The Problem.... 5 

Chapter II 
What Good Order Is ....10 

Chapter III 
Questions not of Discipline ..15 

Chapter IV 
A Good Disciplinarian 19 

Chapter V 
The Disciplined 27 

Chapter VI 
Forms of Control 33 

Chapter VII 
One Touch of Nature 41 

Chapter VIII 
The Broad Meaning of Control 46 

(4) 



THE CONTROL OF PUPILS 



CHAPTEE I 

The Peoblem 

Some years ago a man named Darwin 
wrote a book. In this book he announced 
a theory. That theory shook the world, and 
the world is still shaking except in the 
neighborhood of great schools and univer- 
sities, enlightened editorial sanctums, labora- 
tories and individual scholars, thinkers and 
respecters of the conclusions of great men 
of science. Wherever the shaking has sub- 
sided, the doctrine of evolution is a gospel 
of light, a finger pointing to greater glories 
of human character and achievement. 

What is the doctrine of evolution ? It 
is the doctrine that the complex comes 
from the simple, that greater follows less, 
that circumstances affect plant and animal 
organisms, that from simple beginnings 

(5) 



6 THE CONTROL OF PUPILS 

have developed and multiplied all forms of 
life. It is the doctrine that the world came 
from star dust and man from earth dust, the 
doctrine that man came up through lower 
forms of life and that he is subject to still 
further modification. Evolution frankly 
says that in remote ages the ancestors of 
man were lower animals. 

It is surprising that this theory as applied 
to man should ever have been questioned, 
inasmuch as some of these lower animals, 
concededly like our ancestors, have existed 
in large numbers in historic times — still ex- 
ist. Many of them were found living in 
America at its discovery. Many have been 
found in the South Sea islands. At one 
time many lived in the British Islands. In 
the time of the Eoman Empire large num- 
bers of them dwelt in the wilderness to the 
north. Henry Wirz, the keeper of Ander- 
sonville prison, was one. I speak of the 
lower animals called savages. By an infinite 
number of narrow gradations human life 
leads back from man at his present stage of 
development to man in the low crudeness of 
his obscure]^making. 



THE PROBLEM 7 

Widely different stages of development 
exist contemporaneously, and even in the 
same individual. In society there are those 
living for high ideals and others whose life 
is pitched low. The savage or undeveloped 
nature is found everywhere. The world's 
greatest work, the process of development 
and education, is now on. 

Many of the problems of the parent, 
criminologist, and disciplinarian require an 
evolutionary explanation. Crime and in- 
perfection grow with roots deep in the his- 
tory of the past. Ages of bloody competi- 
tion bred an instinct to kill, which, released 
by passion, impels the murderer. The in- 
stinct to kill animals, which is still strong, 
was developed by ages of nomadic, precari- 
ous life, when the unskilful hunter starved 
and sympathy would have cost its possessor 
his life. Instinctive self-defense often leads 
to extempore false statements that second 
thought regrets. Ages of competition for 
mates have adorned woman with beauty 
and deformed her with jealousy. N'o one 
can wisely guide the young who does not 
know the natural causes of those various 



8 THE CON^TROL OF PUPILS 

phenomena in human psychology and con- 
duct which were once regarded as instigated 
by the caprice and astounding versatility of 
the devil. There is no unexplainable con- 
duct. 

Children are natural. That is to say, 
they are as they are made. How are they 
made ? Many thousands of years of an- 
cestry, almost all sub-civilized; variations 
sometimes favorable, sometimes not; post- 
natal development according to inner dis- 
positions, and some education — these are the 
forces combined in every personality. 

The teacher wants order. Why, the boy 
never was in disorder till he came to school 
or his father wanted him to do a certain 
thing! If you leave a boy to himself he 
will be in perfect order. He has an order, 
a law for himself; it is the order of the boy 
world. In fact one cannot be in disorder 
if left alone. There is no such thing as dis- 
order till one system of order comes into 
conflict with another. Only when the 
teacher's system attempts to supersede the 
order system of the boy does disorder arise. 
The teacher's order system is an innovation. 



THE PROBLEM 9 

There is discomfort, surprise, perhaps re- 
bellion. 

How can the late-born order of civiliza- 
tion, society, and school be imposed on the 
growing energies of this descendant of 
thousands of savages, and the pride of a 
father who with unsuspected implications 
says Clayton is a chip of the old block ? 



CHAPTER II 

What Good Order Is 

There are wrong ideas of what constitutes 
good order in the school-room. Silence is 
not order, nor is noise disorder. Teachers 
often use up their nerve force in vain at- 
tempts to do away with sounds in school. 
It is true that a well-controlled body of 
pupils will not create a bedlam of noise, but 
equally true that a working school-room 
will not be noiseless. Do not set up the 
unwise and impossible ideal of unbroken 
quiet. Only unnecessary and disturbing 
noise is a breach of order. Hov\^ foolish to 
declare a general rule against whispering! 
Do not carpenters talk, whistle, and sing as 
they toil ? Do not all kinds of good doers 
cease to be awkward and noiseless when they 
get at their work ? There is an abandon of 
industry that a wise teacher delights in more 
than in the rigidity of the ninety and nine 
that never went astray. The proper control 

(10) 



WHAT GOOD OKDER IS 11 

of pupils has no place for mere repression. 
There are teachers whose definition of an 
orderly student would fit only a corpse. 

A teacher may succeed in securing the 
observance of rules and the semblance of 
order and yet essentially fail in control. Con- 
trol that does not encourage inner develop- 
ment, but merely stamps the individual with 
external marks of good behavior, is not suc- 
cessful. Of what value is it to enforce a 
rule that a boy shall not smoke, if the rule 
breeds an abnormal desire to experiment 
with tobacco and arouses a lust of spite that 
will be gratified at the first opportunity ? 
The trouble with rules is that they train 
hypocrites, suggest offenses and make them 
attractive, and identify in the boy's mind 
lawlessness with independence and man- 
hood. There are petty individuals who 
think a school is not controlled properly if 
anyone acts naturally, and who prepare 
young men and women for the great busy 
world by discouraging them in every effort 
to manage themselves during the period of 
educational incubation. 

A book of humor could be made of selec- 



12 THE CONTROL OP PUPILS 

tions from school and college rules still in 
effect. One college recently was solemnly 
attempting to enforce rules of which the 
following are examples: 

iSo walking beyond certain limits. 

Young ladies not allowed to go to the 
postoffice without an escort from the faculty. 

No criticism of teachers allowed on pain 
of expulsion. 

All letters of girls to be placed in a little 
tin box for inspection for danger signs. 

iSTo student to be out after nine-thirty 
P. M. 

Young ladies not allowed to play basket- 
ball out of doors. (They wore bloomers.) 

Others might be quoted showing equally 
well a stout belief in original sin and reform 
by mortifying the flesh. 

The repressed person when at last set free 
is little prepared to conduct himself tem- 
perately and wisely. A very little spiritual 
expansion and self-mastery, even at the cost 
of a few joltings, are worth more than uni- 
formity and propriety secured by repressive 
regulations. Liberty is usually a state of 
order. When pupils are given v/ide liberty, 



WHAT GOOD OEDEE IS 13 

occasional infractions of necessary regula- 
tions are few and unimportant compared 
with the disorder and growling rebellion 
that are sure to follow when liberty is 
denied. 

Eules irritate because they inevitably for- 
bid acts not always wrong. It is far better 
to suggest what is desirable under the cir- 
cumstances, improvising a rule for the oc- 
casion, than to set up requirements that 
never quite fit and that exasperate well- 
meaning pupils. A little direction now 
and then, a practice is initiated, imitation 
follows, and soon the school has formed a 
habit, the most comfortable way of proced- 
ure. A wise teacher does not publish set 
laws and declare his rule ; he rules through 
pupils. 

A state of order is marked by absence of 
tension; everybody is comfortable. There 
is a spirit of industry; everybody is busy. 
When a definite common object is sought, 
a group becomes self -regulating. To build 
a bridge, play a game or conduct a club, 
persons unite their efforts for the joint en- 
terprise, and under ordinary circumstances 



14 THE COIS'TROL OF PUPILS 

the correlated individuals exhibit what in 
schools passes as order. When the teacher 
has thrown into prominence the objects of 
school and pupils are socialized for study, 
recitation, and other essential aims, they are 
unconsciously drawn into harmony, and 
disorder and interference with the vital con- 
ditions of the organization are not likely to 
occur. That disposition of persons and 
affairs in school which results from the 
seeking of common ends of itself consti- 
tutes order. 

Order is only a means to an end. It ex- 
ists in schools to promote study and the 
profitable employment of time. Any sys- 
tem of discipline that consorts well with 
application to study, economy of time, 
general comfort, and improvement is a good 
system. 



CHAPER III 

QuESTioisrs :n'ot of Disciplin-e 

The discipline of a school is made easier 
by attention to certain conditions which re- 
act upon the conduct of pupils. Good air 
is an aid in discipline. Poor ventilation, 
uncomfortable seats, and too long occupa- 
tion without change or rest are responsible 
for much irritability and disturbance. The 
physical condition of pupils is closely re- 
lated to their behavior. Bodily conditions 
produce mental states. Cheerfulness, court- 
esy, obedience and loyalty are most likely 
to characterize pupils whose digestion is 
good, vision perfect, and whose muscles 
are properly exercised. Overwork, lack of 
sleep, aches and pains make the teacher dis- 
agreeable, why should they not the pupils ? 

A teacher observant of special conditions 
will be prepared for the rational solution of 
many seeming problems of discipline. 
What would you think of a pupil who sat 

(15) 



16 THE OOKTEOL OF PUPILS 

all the afternoon with his book bottom side 
up, and between pretended attempts to 
study spent his time in yisiting ? Deserves 
severe punishment, doesn't he ? No. His 
eyes are inflamed and painful and if you 
had his troubles you would commit crime. 
A boy is surly, disrespectful, loutish and is 
an " awful trial " ; he doesn't respond. But 
perhaps he responded at four o'clock in the 
morning to the call of a penurious and sav- 
age step-father, and comiCS to school with 
poor clothes retaining undetachable cow- 
stable odors that pain his sensitive nature 
like fire on the skin. Respond! Children 
have been known to bear silently for months 
reproach as dunces when through near- 
sightedness they were not able to read dis- 
play type on a blackboard six feet away. A 
teacher whose specialty is rigorous discipline 
should never inquire closely into the cir- 
cumstances of pupils causing trouble ; other- 
wise he would melt in pity and he wouldn't 
be a '' disciplinarian " any more. 

A teacher should not expect attention 
from pupils under circumstances such that 
adults would not give attention. Dreary, 



questio:n^s xot of discipline 17 

lifeless, prosaic instruction naturally makes 
a class inattentive and restless. A wise 
public speaker who sees his audience slid- 
ing away from him, changes his tactics or 
stops. Under similar circumstances some 
teachers upbraid their audience. It is un- 
wise to expect students to hear without self- 
defence a kind of discussion that would 
lose one the audience of adults if uncon- 
fined. A yawning, disorderly class is usu- 
ally a reflection upon the teacher or his 
methods. A good disciplinarian must be a 
good teacher. There is more need of a 
study of the art of securing attention than 
of devices of discipline. An ingenious 
presentation of a subject is better than re- 
proof. When pupils lose interest in what 
is going on in class they naturally turn to 
any possible diversion for occupation. 
Whose fault is it ? 

Lack of employment leads to disorder. 
To make a disorderly boy orderly, give him 
work, prod him with questions, suggest new 
ideas to work out, give him errands, send 
him out to measure the grounds. A boy is 
like a bicycle; the faster it is made to go, 



18 THE CONTROL OE PUPILS 

the more easily the rider keeps it straight. 
A few friendly suggestions frequently 
avail for order. Enthusiastic CQnfusion 
prevailed in one school-room. It was sug- 
gested to the teacher that she recognize 
only one pupil at a time, hear him through, 
discouraging all interruptions, no matter 
how many heads were full of correct an- 
swers. Soon the pupils saw the fairness 
and desirability of giving one speaker the 
floor and waiting for one's turn to speak. 
The teacher was relieved and the pupils 
pleased. Good manners recommend them- 
selves, once introduced. 



CHAPTER IV 

A Good Disciplikaeia:n" 

We are both born and made. Conduct 
is traceable to inner tendencies and to ac- 
quired ideas. Offensive ways or unwise 
practices may often be traced to an acquired 
idea. Change the idea and you change 
conduct, change character. The ability to 
discipline pupils successfully is both born 
and acquired. A natural disciplinarian may 
improve or through carelessness degenerate. 
A person without natural ability may acquire 
a skill in controlling others that closely re- 
sembles the congenital talent. There is 
hope for the teacher who does not recall 
with satisfaction the discipline of his first 
school. No one need give up. Perhaps a 
change in conceptions, perhaps a little 
guarding of inner tendencies will reduce 
friction and beget a merited reputation for 
excellence in discipline. 

To discipline is to obtain desired conduct 

(19) 



20 THE CONTKOL OF PUPILS 

through the exercise of influence over 
others. There is such a thing as psychic 
compulsion. Some real or imputed su- 
periority creates deference and a willing- 
ness to be guided. A bearing and tone of 
authority are effectual in the control of 
others. Soldiers within the enemy's lines 
have made their escape by assuming author- 
ity and giving preposterous orders. When 
a person acts as if he had the right to com- 
mand, the inference is that he has that right. 
Few ever stop to investigate a claim of this 
character. The instincts of the human 
race conform easily to leadership. Most 
people enjoy domination by superiors in 
strength. Was not one of ISTapoleon's mar- 
shals delirious with joy when his master 
boxed his ears ? Ages of the arbitrary rule 
of despots, priests, nobles, warriors, aristo- 
crats, and rich men have trained mankind 
to habits of obedience and easy self-efface- 
ment. Superiority, be it declared by whis- 
pered rumors, mystery and inscrutability, 
prestige of dress, degrees and decorations, 
actual demonstration, printer's ink or self- 
assertion — even its semblance, is a sufficient 



A GOOD DISCIPLINARIAN 21 

warrant for power over persons not sure of 
themselves nor thoroughly rationalized, of 
whom, alas, the world is full. 

Knowledge is a source of awe and obedi- 
ence. For ages the learned man,— poor 
empty head he might be— was looked upon 
as a preternatural being in league like Dr. 
Eaustus with the powers that control the 
world. Knowledge was a mystery. Its 
possessor bore enchantments. Pupils have 
an awe of learning and feel embarrassed in 
the presence of superior wisdom. Knowl- 
edge controls ignorance. A well-educated 
teacher unconsciously exerts authority over 
pupils; before him they are self-conscious, 
cautious, and suffer a trepidation that 
testifies to their feeling of inferiority 
in knowledge and susceptibility to their 
control. A teacher whose learning is al- 
ways a little deeper in the mystery of things 
and unexpectedly applicable to strange 
questions is sure to be worshiped in a way. 

The unknown is awe-inspiring. A teach- 
er just a little mysterious and unknowable 
will have far less diflBculty than one whose 
volubility in self -explanation leaves nothing 



22 THE COi^TEOL OF PUPILS 

to wonder at, keeps back mucli. Self-poise 
and residual inscrutability are qualities of 
leaders. Silence is powerful. A score of 
tentative presumptions will be made and a 
hundred queries arise if you do not explain 
yourself and announce every policy. Sug- 
gestions of hidden resources and reserve 
strength reinforce authority. While people 
are guessing, they are complimenting you; 
you are interesting them. Babble and the 
spell is broken. The silent man wins. You 
see a well-dressed worthy-looking stranger. 
You do not know that he is not a college 
graduate, a musician, a poet, a traveller, 
and a millionaire. Involuntarily you clothe 
him with excellencies. He explains. He 
has had no education, does not know a 
tune, never read Shakspere, never was out 
of the State and after successive commer- 
cial failures is trying to borrow money to 
start a business college. The mystery is 
dispelled. He is reduced to the ranks. Be- 
ware of too much self-dissection, it hinders 
success and weakens influence. No one is 
interested in the obvious and familiar. 
Everyone enjoys discovery. It is not neces- 



A GOOD DISCIPLIKARIAK 23 

sary to ward off possible favorable judg- 
ments; better deserve them. 

Volubility in the teacher is disorder and 
produces disorder in pupils. A quiet man- 
ner and careful, deliberate speech will be 
imitated. A glance or slight gesture will 
often serve better than many words. People 
usually express unimportant thoughts in 
loud tones. A low voice commands atten- 
tion. Instead of raising the voice to secure 
attention, lower it and say little. 

A good disciplinarian will respect his own 
personality. To secure the good graces 
of pupils it is not necessary for a teacher of 
thirty-five to act like a child of twelve and 
play tag on the school- ground. Children 
have standards of behavior for different 
ages, and easily detect inappropriate antics. 
A teacher of thirty-five will be most popular 
by remaining adult in bearing, neither 
exhibiting unnatural stiffness nor affecting 
unbecoming juvenility. 

In counsel be practical. Very little good 
is done by preaching abstract morality to 
concrete offenders. Tell the boy what to 
do under the circumstances; it will help 



24 THE CONTROL OF PUPILS 

him more than a maxim the application of 
which would confuse a casuist. Never tell 
a boy not to strike back. Grown people do 
not observe that rule. The judiciary exists 
to help people strike back. Besides a boy 
has a reputation to sustain among his fel- 
lows, who would unbearably jeer him for 
peculiarity or supposed cowardice. It is not 
wise to affect unearthly goodness in dealing 
with boys; they lose confidence in you, 
doubting the value of your experience and 
advice. Without hypocrisy or surprise dis- 
cuss and settle in a practical way issues and 
cases. 

A teacher gains nothing by being too oblig- 
ing. Let children bear a reasonable part of 
their own troubles. Children lose respect 
for a person whose own affairs are not of 
sufficient importance to require close atten- 
tion. A teacher who is obtrusively oblig- 
ing will be thought weak and will be im- 
posed on. 

The teacher needs more tact than a poli- 
tician. That wisdom which instantly sees 
the way out of difficulty and avoids pitched 
battles is worth more than diplomas, Pu- 



A GOOD DISCIPLII^ARIAK 25 

pils often do not object to doing a thing, 
but object because of the way the subject 
is presented, perhaps the publicity of a sug- 
gestion. Only in rare cases should pupils 
be reproved or exhorted before the school. 
Eowland is fidgeting in the back seat. A 
quiet and pleasant request as the teacher, 
apparently without design, passes his seat, 
will be complied with good-naturedly, where- 
as if Eowland were yelled at from the plat- 
form he would be irritated by the notoriety 
and make trouble from principle, while the 
school would be temporarily distracted. 

A teacher should be good-looking. That 
is, have a good-looking soul. If one has a 
pleasant disposition, is honest, benevolent, 
and fair-minded, the good-looking soul will 
come through any kind of features and 
create beauty. By the goodness that cre- 
ates beauty are meant altruistic activity and 
radiation, not private scourgings nor petri- 
fied decorum, which are far from beautifying. 

The crowning quality is fairness. A good 
disciplinarian is not an autocrat nor a mule. 

He is a reasoning, sane, judicious, quiet, 
probably ungladiatorial person, perfectly 



26 THE CONTEOL OF PUPILS 

willing to acknowledge mistakes, not loudly 
insisting on technicalities, nor boring pupils 
with useless regulations which are enforced 
chiefly to prove his authority. He controls 
without anger or noise and decides without 
resentment or prejudice. 

There is more to be said. A ruler of men 
hides in his soul a power that other men 
know exists. Is it daring ? Is it the cer- 
tainty of an unshakable resolution? Does 
it call to mind the unquivering pose and 
proud sneering of Cambronne before aimed 
rifles in the dusk of Waterloo ? Is it a 
suggestion of the careless grandeur of 
heroes who toss away life in sacrifice to 
will ? There is a power that collects every 
energy of soul and body for a single throw, 
reckless of life or limb — that is the power. 



CHAPTER V 
The DisciPLiis'ED 

Every individual seeks to express himself. 
Self-expression sometimes takes objection- 
able forms, as eccentricity, disorder, crime. 
Vanity or egotism leads to efforts to attract 
attention and monopolize applause. Many 
a boy's disorder arises from his desire to 
show off or establish his pre-eminence 
among his fellows. Turned toward proper 
ends the crudest egotism is valuable motive 
power. Boys eager to excel are prone to 
offend by choosing objectionable paths to 
fame, but the troublesome, high-spirited, 
spectacular boy is full of promise. 

There is a little world within every school- 
room, a miniature of universal society. A 
school-room is a bit of the world enclosed. 
Each member has his competitions, points 
of pride, social obligations, and desires to 
communicate his thoughts and give sage 
counsel. 

(27) 



28 THE COKTEOL OF PUPILS 

How does this little world regard the 
teacher ? Sometimes as a policeman to be 
avoided ; sometimes as an enemy seeking to 
make anarchy in boy and girl society; some- 
times as an older, wiser, and friendly power, 
wonderfully sympathetic and miraculously 
disposed to be of assistance. Of course be- 
fore the teacher's attitude is known there is 
some scientific curiosity and experimenta- 
tion, but a teacher with tact and good-hu- 
mor will soon be favorably classified. 

Pupils take advantage of a teacher who 
shows himself easily irritated; it becomes 
an interesting diversion to stir him up; few 
can resist the temptation to contribute to 
his embarrassment. Lack of self-control 
is weakness, and in crude societies weak- 
ness invites attack. If some one is making 
a disagreeable noise the excitable teacher 
gets angry and talks; the offender takes 
up the challenge to the game of wits and 
continues to annoy . A shrewd and self- 
controlled teacher would seem undisturbed 
and would soon have the offender located 
through his over-confidence. 

Pupils are exasperated by being treated 



THE DISCIPLINED 29 

in a way unbecoming their years and sensi- 
tive dignity. Sometimes their intelligence 
is insulted by unnecessary repetitions and 
stale cautions. One teacher became a by- 
word by her stereotyped query, " Do you 
understand ? " 

Few school-room offences are really seri- 
ous. Ignorance and thoughtlessness are 
the cause of many. A. boy cuts a desk 
thoughtlessly. He throws coal out of a 
window " just for fun ", taking as a target 
a poor woman's roof. When all the phases 
of the act are pointed out the thoughtless 
lad is ready to make amends. It was not 
a bad act, only unfunny boys' fun due to 
the enthusiasm of discovery and spread by 
contagion. It is unfortunate to take youth- 
ful pranks too seriously. The intent is im 
portant rather than results. There are sur- 
prisingly few wanton and malicious offences. 

While general remarks on discipline apply 
both to boys and girls, there are minor but 
important distinctions. The more orderly 
and studious nature of girls usually makes 
their control easier. The typical boy's 
bold, sceptical, and restless nature, the com- 



30 THE COKTROL OF PUPILS 

posite, it may be, of Teutonic barbarism, 
Viking, Elizabethan pirate, and Cromwel- 
lian foot-soldier, is in present as well as 
historical contrast with girl character, 
whose traits, quiet and cautious, trace 
ancestry through ages of protestion and 
seclusion, ages of castle-bolts, face veils and 
body-swathing, ages of intellectual repres- 
sion and exemption from physical strife. 
Instinctive obedience, keen sensibilities 
which exaggerate the fear of punishment, 
lack of inventiveness and habitual conser- 
vatism unite to make the normal feminine 
type readily amenable to discipline. At 
the present stage of development woman 
illustrates the governability of the ruled 
class in despotisms while man generally 
exemplifies the independence and self-suf- 
ficiency of the political unit in mo^lern 
democracy. 

Discernment on the part of the teacher 
is made necessary by the fact that there is 
often among girls pronounced evasion and 
indirectness. Untold generations of women 
have been forced to dissemble and deceive, 
putting tact and cunning against brute and 



THE DISCIPLINED 31 

savage force or adroit rivalry. Moreover 
in the competitions of past ages for food, 
mates, and other advantages, while man's 
weapons were largely external and mechan- 
ical, woman's were mental and strategic. 
There are distinct traces of these early con- 
ditions in the tendencies of men and women 
to-day, and though men are less given than 
formerly to using spear, club, and fist, they 
nevertheless very likely practise more than 
women open and fair fighting and make 
direct attacks. A boy is more given to 
overt offences and flat refusals. His face 
reveals his feelings. A girl will often smile 
when covertly resentful and look interested 
when sadly bored. 

Nature is obliging. A young tree will 
grow straight at a suggestion, that is, a 
prop. A pupil's tendency is often neither 
upward nor downward, but merely on a 
level in the line of the least resistance, 
the most attractive path. Show the pupil 
the desirability of certain conduct and 
often he will grow straight and remember 



32 THE co:n^trol op pupils 

with gratitude the day when a reasonable 
and sympathetic teacher pointed out to him 
in ignorance the best things in life. 



CHAPEE VI 

Forms of Control 

The lowest form of control is physical. 
It applies to the lowest orders of intelligence. 
The explorer Stanley says it was necessary 
in dealing with certain African tribes to rely 
upon physical force because they could un- 
derstand no other means and suspected weak- 
ness and cowardice where there was not a 
show of strength. With lower animals it 
is well-known that force is the usual meth- 
od of discipline. A fractious horse is cor- 
rected by whip and rein, not by persuasion, 
argumentation and exposition. It is unwise 
to meet a mad bull with reproachful glances 
or sympathetic assurances — a pitchfork is 
better. The bull does not stop to see psychic 
compulsion in the eye of the trespasser in 
the pasture; he sees only a jointed, bi- 
furcated object with a red necktie and 
makes a dash at it. One defends himself 
from savage animals and savages by force. 

(33) 



34 THE COi^TROL OF PUPILS 

Only in the higher stages of human devel- 
opment can one safely rely on other means. 
Individuals may retain enough primitive 
obtuseness of mind, dullness of sense of 
obligation, lack of imagination and sensi- 
bility to necessitate resort to physical force. 
Accordingly restraint is imposed by prisons 
and policemen and bodily punishment in- 
flicted. In cases of irrationality, appeals 
to intelligence failing, the body is the only 
alternative. 

Generally throughout society and almost 
entirely in schools, physical force has been 
superseded by other forms of control. 
There would not be enough policemen and 
soldiers in the world to keep society in order 
if it were not largely self-control. Our 
army and constabulary are organized and 
prison space arranged for upon the assump- 
tion that only a few out of thousands will 
ever require coercion. The civil war in 
America, caused by a breach of constitu- 
tional discipline in the South, showed how 
little prepared is State or nation to cope by 
physical force Yiiih an extensive rebellion. 

Control by physical force is the least 



FORMS OF CONTROL 35 

effectual of forms of control because it 
must be confined to overt acts and therefore 
fails to reach large classes of offences. It 
is largely negative ; for while inhibiting acts 
it is rarely available to initiate good con- 
duct. It does not go to the sources from 
which acts spring. Physical force speaking 
through law requires that no one shall push 
.another into a river, but the penal code can- 
not require that one shall pull out of a river 
a person already in. Moreover, government 
by physical force is expensive. It takes 
several strong men to compel one to do an 
act which a motive would effectuate un- 
assisted. 

While physical force is not actively con- 
trolling society, it nevertheless stands in the 
background as a final resort. In case other 
means fail, authority must resort to sword, 
powder, club, fist, or switch; or abdicate. 
A squeamishness and affectation of refine- 
ment which absolutely deny the teacher the 
right to punish are as unscientific as legisla- 
tion to make water run up hill. 

A teacher has a legal right to punish a 
disobedient pupil, but public sentiment 



1 



mmmmmmm 



36 THE CONTROL OF PUPILS 

makes the exercise of that right of doubt-- 
ful wisdom in most cases. For prudential 
reasons it is well to avoid as much as possi- 
ble the infliction of corporal punishment. 
No teacher should punish except in modera- 
tion and as a last resort. No one else is 
likely to see an oJSence with the anger a 
teacher may feel. 

Pupil organizations— particularly boy or- 
ganizations, for girls are deficient in organ- 
izing capacity and group cohesion— main- 
tain order, and discipline individuals mem- 
bers. A school baseball team rarely disin- 
tegrates till the season is over; its vital rules- 
are strictly enforced. The means of disci- 
pline employed by small groups are usually 
merely the compulsion of group opinion,, 
with possible ostracism. The teacher's suc- 
cess is inevitable if he can direct the social 
instincts of pupils in favor of school inter- 
ests. If pupils can be brought to see that 
their interests are linked with the interests 
of the school management they will exer- 
cise their group opinion for order and will 
of themselves bring into submission evil- 
disposed associates. One frequently sees a 



POEMS OF CONTKOL 37 

group of busy students turn upon and 
quell a noisy mernber. The great problem 
of the teacher is to secure cohesion of the 
stu^^t body for order and the general ob- 
jects he is promoting. Let me illustrate the 
utilization of school opinion. A teacher 
makes the return of a pupil who has been 
excused from the room a condition prece- 
dent to the absence of a second pupil. iSTo 
one objects to this arrangement. A student 
who remains out of the room an undue time 
infringes on the rights of others and will be 
severely dealt with by his fellows, while the 
teacher, entirely relieved of the work of 
discipline, looks on merely as a spectator. 
The teacher's point is gained if offences 
against his rule are made to appear as 
offences against the interests of the whole 
school, as they are. 

A pupil who in evil-doing has the support 
of his fellows is proof against the efforts of 
the teacher, but if denounced by his social 
class speedily conforms to requirements. 
If a school takes pride in the appearance of 
the building and grounds, no disciplinarian 
is needed to punish defacement; for the 



38 THE CONTROL OF PUPILS 

school society will wither the offender with 
collective scorn, the bitterest form of pun- 
ishment. 

In directing the public opinion of the 
school-room it is well to work through lead- 
ers. Two or three influential pupils, en- 
listed in behalf of the management, will 
popularize policies and secure informal stu- 
dent legislation. Unobtrusive methods of 
control and the delegation of government to 
the school serve to identify interests of 
teacher and pupils. The school should be 
given frequent opportunities to decide upon 
policies. Every well-managed school is 
largely under student government in fact, 
whether nominally or not. 

Difficulty is often experienced through 
the loyalty of a pupil to his fellows in a 
clique. A boy's obligations to his clan often 
forbid his disclosing evidence. He will 
offend the teacher and suffer punishment 
rather than offend his mates. Well-mean- 
ing boys acting with a majority or following 
leaders are drawn into irregular conduct 
through the spirit of fellowship and fear of 
ridicule. A skating party returns late to 



FOEMS OF CONTEOL 39 

school. What does it mean ? Perhaps that 
one boy challenged another to stay over time, 
and the rank and file remained through 
social attraction. All march in together 
appearing equally at fault and are prepared 
to stand by one another. In such a case a 
little rational exposition by the teacher is bet- 
ter than general denunciation. It is not wise 
to attempt to make pupils break all clan 
bonds; it is better to approve loyalty and 
enlist it in the larger interests of the school. 

The forms of control already spoken of, 
government by physical force, actual or 
threatened, and by group opinion, are lower 
in class than self-control. The sense of 
moral obligation, reasoned conduct, and 
spontaneous well-doing are subjective disci- 
plinary forces of superlative value in society 
and the foundation of good character. All 
that is required in dealing with the self-dis- 
ciplined is tact, fairness, and mutual un- 
derstanding. 

Fortunately subjective control widely pre- 
vails in society and school. Usually no ap- 
peal need be made to the objective control 
of group opinion or physical force. From 



40 THE COKTROL OF PUPILS 

the better nature may be evoked deep, al- 
truistic forces which have been accumulating 
in the race since mothers first loved babes 
and warriors fought in bands, forces which 
in the ascent of man are ever gaining new 
strength. Before the walls of Kome, em- 
bittered Coriolanus yielded to the entreaties 
of mother, wife and child. Few can with- 
stand the call to look up and be better. 



CHAPTER VII 

0:srE Touch of Kature 

It is necessary that the teacher have the 
power through imagination and recollection 
to feel and see from the pupil's standpoint. 
He must understand how matters look to 
the pupil. While it is always desirable to 
lead the pupil to higher planes of thought 
and suggest higher considerations, it is im- 
portant to bear in mind his limitations. 
There is a '' consciousness of kind " that 
removes most of the difficulties of school 
management. A pupil will do much for a 
teacher who seems to be the same kind of 
being as himself. 

By looking at matters from the pupil's 
standpoint, the true character of various 
acts is ascertainable. It is possible through 
lack of like-thinking to see in the merest 
trifles the intent to* give offence and over- 
throw authority. What does a scribbled 
personality on a blackboard mean ? Per- 

(41) 



42 THE CONTROL OF PUPILS 

haps that some immature, amiable, and 
thoughtless boy has attempted to amuse by 
his originality and daring ; merely perverted 
egotism. A good teacher should have a 
sufficiently good opinion of himself to act 
as a coat of mail for such attacks; over- 
sensitiveness is not a virtue, particularly in 
this age. It would be a great mistake to fly 
into a rage and denounce the unidentified 
culprit. There is a quiet way of making 
everybody rather ashamed for the offender; 
gentle and delightful ridicule will serve. 
Bluster and fervid denunciation are merely 
entertainment. 

Through sympathy the teacher is admitted 
to the student body, and is taken into their 
psychological groups and enjoys the bene- 
fit and protection of class instincts. Not 
in all ways can a teacher be in social parity 
with students; his maturity forbids. Pu- 
pils tell one another things they never tell 
any teacher. There are little eddies of 
socialization for pupils only. Yet by show- 
ing an interest in things that interest pupils, 
the teacher will be looked upon in many 
relations as a fellow in groups with which 



OKE TOUCH OF NATURE 43 

otherwise he might stand in the relation of 
an alien with no security from hostilities. 

In the interests of easy discipline a teacher 
may well assist in student enterprises and 
co-operate in special endeavors. Count 
Frontenac made himself popular with the 
Indians of Canada in colonial times by put- 
ting on Indian dress and war paint and 
dancing with them about their camp fires. 
Without making undue concessions, teach- 
ers will encourage and delight pupils by 
avowed sympathy and evidences of friend- 
liness. 

Discipline will be made easier by showing 
practical kindness and wisdom in dealing 
with pupils who may be poorly adjusted to 
courses of study. Xo one with slight re- 
membrance of his own early struggles will 
require a worthy student to take a subject 
over and over before going on to others. 
Don't you remember how impossible it was 
for you at a certain age to master some 
study? Yet you could learn others easily 
and should not have been discouraged by 
the exception. Eememberthat early heart- 
sickness and sit down by the boy and clear 



44 THE CONTKOL OF PUPILS 

the atmosphere. Tell him of men who 
have succeeded in spite of incapacity in 
certain studies. Never mind the " re- 
gents ". A wise talk by a discerning teacher 
may inspire a pupil who through misunder- 
standing himself might drift away in dis- 
couragement and resentment and die out of 
the life for which he is really fitted. 

Dignity does not require that a teacher 
conceal his emotions and dehumanize him- 
self. If anything funny occurs, laughter 
should not be discouraged. The early Xew 
England theory that laughter is improper 
should not be adhered to. It is well even 
to educate the sense of humor as occasion 
favors. What will be done with the bov who 
is always trying to start a laugh ? One 
sensible woman said privately after class: 
'' Merton, some of your jokes are good — 
some of them. If the joke is good we all 
want to hear it, but if it is bad it causes a 
waste of valuable time. So be careful not 
to try to say funny things unless they are 
really funny, and you must be judge of 
that." Merton, whose impulse to make 
others laugh was irresistible and might have 

LofC. 



OKE TOUCH OE KATUKE 45 

caused a tactless teacher no end of trouble, 
was impressed, chastened, and subdued, and 
made trouble for nobody. 

It is the human touch that makes life 
worth living. Children are not mechanisms. 
Their happiness should be a distinct aim. 
It is more important that they should gain 
an optimistic and confident attitude than 
that they should acquire a few additional 
facts for possible future use. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Bboad Meaning of Conteol 

What is the object of the control of pu- 
pils ? Is it merely keep to them quiet dur- 
ing the hours of the school day ? A clear 
conception of the broad aims of education 
will be valuable to the teacher disciplinarian. 

Our public school system is a practical 
example of socialism. In the schools the 
state is conducting the education of its 
youthful citizens. Education, formerly a 
function of the family, has been entrusted 
to the public school teacher. The logical 
implication of the public support of schools 
is that the training and control of pupils 
should be of such character as to yield to 
the public at large the greatest return in 
social values: uprightness, rationality, in- 
dustry, efficiency, and altruism. The pub- 
lic school must prepare for life; it does not 
perform its full duty by teaching arithmetic 
and geography, no matter how well taught. 

(46) 



THE BKOAD MEAi^IJSTG OF COI^TROL 47 

Broader aims than merely technical and 
academic ones are the real business of teach- 
ing. A teacher may turn his school into an 
organization whose whole educational aim 
is the cramming for and passing of set ex- 
aminations. Such a teacher actually betrays 
a public trust. A pedant loves to teach 
facts ; a wise man and true teacher seeks to 
teach what facts mean and the use of knowl- 
'edge, and to cultivate the love and quest of 
truth, using knowledge as a tool in shaping 
character. 

Instruction and control must set up as 
their object the symmetrical individual and 
worthy citizen. The world is full of quar- 
ter men, half men, with some two-thirds men ; 
there are few full men. Thousands yearly 
come from the schools deficient in self- 
control and characterized by disordered lives 
and looseness of purpose. For the benefit 
of society the teacher's duty is to encourage 
the self-control exhibited as self-restraint 
and shown in self-direction and adherence 
to purpose. Less attention to text-books 
and more to persons is desirable. In vicious 
addiction to the text-book mania teachers 



48 THE COKTEOL OF PUPILS 

lose forever opportunities for revealing the 
significance of great truths and inculcating^ 
vital principles of conduct. As their full 
service in preparing for future usefulness 
teachers work overtime in drilling algebraic^ 
expressions into the minds of boys wha 
leave school at fourteen to take part in a 
world of activity where the retention of 
ideas from mathematical puzzledom is of 
slight importance. Round-shouldered, im- 
polite, inexact, purposeless, uninspired pu- 
pils, perhaps uninstructed in the elements of 
private morality, much less in broad social 
obligations, go in and out before teachers 
who with pedantic fatuity or from the fault 
of public system, see, hear and senso 
nothing but '' examinations ". Some day^ 
we shall be wiser and teach for the whole- 
life instead of that part of life that is con- 
cerned with fruitless data and the use of 
difficult names for familiar ideas. We shall 
regard pupils not as intellectuality alone 
but personality as well. We shall teach 
not only how to know but how to be! 

Intellectually the teacher's greatest duty 
is to teach the art of thinking. Is there 



THE BROAD MEAKIKG OF C02!q-TE0L 49 

not sufficient evidence that there is need 
of this ? There are thousands of people in 
the United States who believe the earth is 
flat, and millions who while believing the 
earth is round so believe on the same 
ground as those believing the earth is flat, 
namely, tradition. Is a man benighted be- 
cause he doesn't keep up with tradition ? 
It is a question whether the average public 
school pupil — that is, any one of ninety- 
eight out of a hundred — at the end of his 
course surpasses an untrained mind in mak- 
ing close, connected observations and draw- 
ing warranted inferences or has a greater 
desire for probing to the true meaning of 
things. It is doubtful if he will apply what 
is called knowledge with better results. It 
is undeniable that thousands do not seem 
to carry into later life vivifying interests 
developed in the school-room, and in sus- 
ceptibility to tradition, prejudice, mob in- 
fluence, and gullibility are not distinguish- 
able from uneducated persons. N'ever did 
the world — still essentially mediaeval in 
thought — need more than now clear-think- 
ing, initiative, individuality, and that open- 



50 THE CONTKOL OF PUPILS 

ness of mind which makes a century of 
progress the possibility of a day. There i& 
possible a comprehensive educatioij that 
will regenerate society and incidentally 
make discipline a matter of mere sugges- 
tion. The first object of education is not. 
knowledge, but character, intellectual and 
moral. 

The*schools are able to contribute vastly 
to the welfare of society by educating for 
self-control and training the interpreting 
powers. Graduation should mean the be- 
ginning of life expansion and growing in- 
sight, and the order of school rooms com- 
mend itself as an ultimate ideal of society. 



'' It may be laid down as a universal rule 
that a government which attempts more 
than it ought will perform less. " — Macaulay. 



JUN 101903 



